CeilidhbeyondBorders: How do you like Israel ??

I found myself at the 4^th annual ‘Octoberfest’ beer festival in the Christian village of Tayber near Rumallah on Saturday afternoon. It was a good day out with music through-out the day, good food and best of all, cheap ale. Many of you back home may seem it strange for there to be a beer festival here in Palestine but there is a loud and proud minority of Christian Palestinians who like the occasional tipple. Tayber Beer (named after the village) is the drink of choice for many christians and secularists in city’s like Rumallah and Bethlehem. They have even launched a non alcholic version for their Muslim brothers and with their motto ‘taste the revoltuion’ , it will undoubtedly be a success.

Beer in the Sun

Myself and three friends from Nablus including Kevin stayed until 7pm before getting a taxi back to Nablus. By 7.30pm it was pitch black and we had been pulled over by an Israeli infantry patrol unit headed by a grumpy little female soldier with serious issues. She was small and her smallness was only exaggereted by her helmit which was clearly to big for her. She opened the door of drivers seat who was already scrambling for his documents. Holding her M16 carbine rifle (which of course looked to big for her) she huffed and she puffed whilst two other soldgiers circled the taxi peering in the window at us like a pair of weekend window shoppers. Getting more annoyed with the taxi driver she turned her attention to us the passengers. I don’t know why I felt the need to wink at her but this definately wasn’t the time or the place. I followed the wink with a cheeky ‘Everything ok love?’ in the strongest yorkshire accent I could muster. Maybe it was a bit of nervousness or maybe it was the 6 pints I had just consumed but I always thought a strong friendly, colloquial accent could diffuse any situation. She stared at me blank face then shouted . .

‘Am I your friend’

‘No’

‘Then shut the fuck up!!’

I’ve never felt so dominated in my life . . Some guys pay for this kind of treatment. She charged around to my side of the taxi sliding open the door before shouting more and taking our passports. Kevin was sat in the front of me and she demanded he empty the contents of his bag on the dash board. His bag, with it being an absolute bitch to open, wouldn’t open in time and she grabbed him by the neck before snatching the bag to empty the contents her self. After ranting for a while and asking the usual questions she went back to her jeep to check the details of the taxi driver. This all the while the two other armed skulking soldgiers leant casualy against the car making small talk . . .

‘So . . . . what do you think of Israel?’

I was astonished. I thought to myself . . Are you for serious mate?

'Yeh, really nice' Sarcastically.

He was clearly embarssed by the actions of his supervising officer. I dread to think how she treats Palestinians with no internationals present. I fail to understand how someone can have so little respect for their fellow human beings. This is widespread throughout Israel and the IDF.

We had a laugh with the taxi driver on the way back but jokes aside he said ‘imagine this everyday’. I think he appreciated our humour though as he took us for a coffea and refused to let us pay when we got back into Nablus.

Storie's like these all too commom. Its hard to convey to you back home how widespread this daily harassment and bullying is. It does nothing but drive Palestinians to new heights of desperation. The Israelis claim these checkpoints and car searches are nessecary for their own security, this is rubbish. Israel is sitting behind the most equipped, technolgiacally advanced, trained and experienced army the world has ever seen (maybe with the US). It has encircled the West Bank with by an 8 metre tall seperation wall 723km long armed with turrets and sniper towers. This 'apartheid wall', as it is known, has been built mostly on Palestinian land – a whopping 86% further indicating that the intentions behind the builidng of the Wall, which is a violation of International Law and has been repeatedly condemned by the UN, is also a both a blatant land grab and an attempt at strangling all aspects of Palestinian life.) It is widely beleived the aim of Israeli leaders is make life so unbearable for the Palestinians that they all leave the land. They've succeeded. Unfortunately the Palestinians have no-where to go though, apart from the ghettos which Israel has pushed them into.